TAIPEI - Taiwan is not seeing any signs of large-scale Chinese military activity before elections in January but is keeping a close watch on China, the island’s Defence Ministry said on Dec 26.

Taiwan’s Jan 13 presidential and parliamentary election will shape the island’s relations with Beijing.

China, which regards the self-governing Taiwan as its territory to be reunified with it, has in recent years regularly carried out military drills around the island as it seeks to assert its sovereignty claims and pressure Taipei. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims.

As the election approaches, Taiwan has been reporting Chinese fighter jets and warships around the island, as well as balloons crossing the sensitive Taiwan Strait, though the military says they are most likely for weather monitoring purposes.

“So far we haven’t seen signs they’re making big moves, but nothing today doesn’t mean there won’t be something tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” Taiwan defence ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang told reporters in Taipei.

“We are watching all the time,” he added.

China has not hidden its dislike of the presidential front runner Lai Ching-te from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, regularly denouncing him as a separatist and warning any moves towards Taiwan’s formal independence means war.

Mr Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China that have been rebuffed. He says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name.

Taiwan’s defence ministry gives a daily update on Chinese military activities near the island, including how many aircraft it has detected.

Over the past year and a half, China has staged two major rounds of war games near Taiwan. REUTERS